Harry Callahan does all the dirty work. He does the dirty work that the people in the force wouldn’t do were it not for him. In the first half of “Dirty Harry,” he has to cut his lunch short and walk across the street in the middle of gun fire to stop a bank robber. And the cavalry is taking a while to get there and help him. He stops his eating, and is forced to single handedly put an end to the heist, and he goes back and finishes his lunch. He does it because he has to, because without him it all goes to shit. That’s Dirty Harry, the man with the magnum who sparked quite a controversy upon his introduction with many assuming he was an ode to, and endorsement for vigilantism and right wingers.
Tag Archives: Thriller
The Andromeda Strain (2008) (DVD)
They blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell! Ah, Nuclear warheads, will we never learn? Shortly after “The Andromeda Strain” arrived to the A&E Networks last month, here we have the Special Edition DVD which is a shockingly great treatment for a television mini-series that just arrived. I know it’s not the first time a mini series gets a huge treatment, but you should see this. The casing is magnificent with a fold out front that allows you to read some of the content about it, and then there’s the DVD set which are two discs. I still don’t know why they split up the movie with two DVD’s bearing parts one and two, instead of just presenting the entire production as movie, I mean, that would make much more sense.
Ms. 45 (1981)
If there’s anything that gets my goat more than apocalypse films, and superhero films, it’s revenge flicks. Revenge movies make up some of the best cinema I’ve ever seen, from Samurai epics, to Western tales, and Abel Ferrera’s “Ms. 45” is that revenge movie in the vein of “I Spite on your Grave” where a woman who has suffered the crime of rape, now strikes out against all men, instead of the men who hurt her. Anna is a meek mute girl who designs clothes during the day time. On the way home, she’s anally raped on the street, and then staggers home wounded to find that a man has broken into her home and, angered that she has no valuables, decides to rape her… again.
Anna can’t catch a break, as you can imagine.
Hot Summer in the City (1976)
One of the more humorous aspects of “Hot Summer in the City” is the presumption that it’s an actual movie because its book ended by “Summer in the City” by Lovin’ Spoonful. Not only does the song have nothing to do with the actual movie, but director Gail Palmer seems to just have bought the rights to play it at the beginning and end of her movie to add some sense of credibility trying to eagerly convince us that there’s a serious plot here, instead of just a hint of a narrative in between all of the rough sex and rape. In all honesty, it’s just a hardcore porno with dashes of story here and there and some wildly cartoonish Caucasian protagonists and African American villains. And there’s a lot of rape, too. Poor white chick gets raped by black dudes. That’s the plot.
Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69 (2008)
Ah Nazisploitation, one of my favorite sub-genres of the Grindhouse niche. After watching the “Ilsa” movies last year, I found the subset to be a very fascinating and varied area with titles attempting social relevance and failing immensely. “Blitzkrieg” is the incredible ambitious and sophisticated dip into the nazi exploitation gallery with a very unusual and original story that hearkens back to Jess Franco and Don Edmonds. “Blitzkrieg” sets down on 1955, a little over a decade after the holocaust where a secret group of officers are busting ex-Nazi death camp owners and arresting them.
Shark Swarm (2008)
I would love to say that this is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, I really would, but when all is said and done, it’s really just a typically awful television movie with a three hour run time that is about as necessary as another killer shark movie. When I finished “Shark Swarm” I blamed myself for sitting through it, and I completely forgot about it once the credits rolled. Boring as piss, “Shark Swarm” is one of the most derivative of the killer animal movies with elements that don’t try to break the mold and instead just follow along with clichés incessantly bringing us through the motions until the finale. Sharks are traveling in swarms because well… we’re never given a real explanation.
"King of the Grindhouse" 42nd Street Pete: The Deuce, Stag, and The New School
Movie lovers already know who 42nd Street Pete is, he’s a man you’ll either love or hate, who has spent most of his life talking about and writing about movies. That’s our kind of man. Simply known as 42nd Street Pete, he is a connoisseur of trash cinema and has an encyclopedic knowledge of everything from stag films right down to Hammer, and loves sharing his insight about what he’s experienced. Pete, even at the height of his cult fame interviewing Joe Knetter and George Romero, garnering a following, and sporting almost ten specialty compilation DVDs with his brand name, the man was still kind enough to take the time out for an interview and share his sights and sounds with us for the readers. Pete is extremely humble for a man who has seen and done it all, and at his fifties he doesn’t seem to be slowing down. You’ll find no shortage of opinions from Pete who constantly rants on his MySpace blog about social issues, and saves the movie stuff for his two very entertaining websites, where he mixes movie reviews with his own personal anecdotes on how and why he found them.